Up to now, age verification in the US has mostly played out state by state — the wave of laws now covering 27 states we wrote about last month. That's about to change. A trade group representing the adult entertainment industry is mounting a last-minute push against Sen. Mike Lee's SCREEN Act, which the Senate Commerce Committee is set to take up this week as part of a broader package of kids' online safety legislation.

What the Bill Would Do

The SCREEN Act would require any commercial platform hosting sexually explicit content to implement age-verification technology to confirm a user's age before granting access. The detail drawing the most attention is that the requirement would apply even if a user is accessing the site through a VPN — closing a workaround that's made state-level laws easier to route around.

This would be the first federal-level age verification requirement of this kind, rather than the current state-by-state patchwork. A federal standard would apply uniformly regardless of which state a visitor is browsing from.

Why the Industry Is Pushing Back

Industry opposition has centered on a few consistent arguments: concerns about how verification data would be stored and secured, First Amendment questions around content-based restrictions, and skepticism about whether VPN-inclusive verification is even technically enforceable given that many VPN providers operate outside US jurisdiction entirely.

What Happens Next

The bill's path through the Senate Commerce Committee this week is the next real checkpoint. Given how quickly state-level age verification laws have expanded over the past two years, a federal standard — if it advances — would be a significant escalation rather than an incremental step.

Practical Takeaways